Family Album - Excerpt - Brief Article

Jane Anderson

From JANE ANDERSON, the award-winning writer of the first segment of If These Walls Could Talk 2, comes an original play about love, memories, and loss

A 5-year-old girl, Emily, is curled up on the couch with her two dads. They're looking through a photo album. The girl points to a shot of a group of buff young men in Speedos sunning on the beach.

EMILY

Who are these men?

DADDY SAM

Those were friends we had a house with on Fire Island. That's Phillip and Michael and Howard and Robert. That's Papa Eric, and that's me when I still had a hairline and biceps.

EMILY

What is Fire Island?

DADDY SAM

It's a very skinny little island that's off the coast of Long Island, which is not an island, actually--it's part of New York.

EMILY

Does it have fire on it?

PAPA ERIC

No, honey, that's just the name. It's a very, very pretty place. You have to ride on a ferry to get there. There are no cars on the island, and instead of roads there are boardwalks, which are pathways maple of wood. And when you get off the boat, you take your things to your house in a wagon. And we stayed in a part that was called the Pines because it had all these funny little pine trees, And deer lived there.

EMILY

Could you pet the deer?

PAPA ERIC

No, they were too shy to get too close. But if you were out walking late at night, you could see them.

(Emily points to a picture of the boys in a wharf-side bar holding bright blue drinks.)

EMILY

What's that you're drinking? It's bluel Why are those drinks blue?

DADDY SAM

I don't know, Those are just funny drinks we liked to have.

PAPA ERIC

The blue put all of us in a silly mood. We'd drink our blue drinks and laugh and talk, and then we'd all go dancing and stay up all night long.

(Sam gives Eric a "why are you telling her this?" look.)

PAPA ERIC

(To Sam) I'm just talking about the dancing.

EMILY

What kind of dancing? Ballet dancing?

DADDY SAM

No, happy dancing. Like Barney does.

PAPA ERIC

Not like Barney. It was disco.

EMILY

Like Disco Barbie?

PAPA ERIC

Exactly.

(To Sam, a bit annoyed) She knows what disco is.

DADDY SAM

Fine.

EMILY

I want to go to Fire Island.

DADDY SAM

It's mostly for grown-ups, honey. You'd get bored there,

EMILY

No, I wouldn't. I'd play on the beach.

DADDY SAM

We'll take you to Hawaii.

EMILY

I don't want to go to Hawaii. I want to go to Fire Island. I want to see the deer.

DADDY SAM

You can't see the deer. The deer are hiding.

(To Eric) You had to mention the deer?

EMILY

Why can't we go to Fire Island?

(Daddy Sam looks at Erie as if to say, "You handle it. ")

PAPA ERIC

Because it would make us sad.

EMILY

Why?

PAPA ERIC

Do you see all these sweet, funny men? They were our friends on the island, and they were what made everything fun. But they aren't around anymore.

EMILY

Where did they go?

PAPA ERIC

They died, sweetie.

EMILY

How did they die?

PAPA ERIC

A bad disease.

EMILY

Did everyone who was on Fire Island die?

PAPA ERIC

Not everyone. Papa and I didn't die.

EMILY

Why not?

DADDY SAM

Luck.

PAPA ERIC

And because Daddy and I were meant to have you.

(Emily studies the pictures of all the happy, handsome men.)

EMILY

These were your friends? Like my friends Savannah and Tyler and Sophie?

PAPA ERIC

That's right. That's our friend Eliot, who told funny stories and made us laugh all the time ... and Phillip, who was a dancer and who was incredibly sweet ...

DADDY SAM

Howard and Robert--they were wonderful cooks, taught Papa how to make a good pasta. And Ted--he was always trying to get us to jog.

PAPA ERIC

He used to run from one end of the island to the other.

EMILY

I want to see a picture of the deer.

DADDY

We don't have any pictures of the deer.

EMILY

Oh.

(Emily slips off the couch.)

EMILY

Can I have some apple juice?

DADDY SAM

Sure, honey.

(Emily wanders off to the kitchen.)

DADDY SAM

That's all she cares about, the fucking deer?

(Eric shrugs, stares at the album.)

PAPA ERIC

She'll ask more when she's ready.

(A beat)

DADDY SAM

Do you think this is something she really needs to know about?

(Another beat)

PAPA ERIC

I don't know ... I don't know.

FADE OUT

JANE ANDERSON, author of "Family Album" (page 111), is an Emmy award-winning television writer, screenwriter, director, and playwright whose works include The Baby Dance, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheer. leader-Murdering Mom, and How to Make an American Quilt. She most recently wrote and directed the first segment of HBO's lesbian trilogy If These Walls Could Talk 2, starring Vanessa Redgrave. Anderson lives with Tess Ayers, her partner of 18 years, and their son, Raphael.

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